Middle Cerebral Artery Segment with Vasospasm

Steven Conrad, LSU Health Sciences Center Email:

This model represents a stenosis due to vasospasm in the M1 segment of the middle cerebral artery, as might occur following subarachnoid hemorrhage. The model is intended to simulate blood flow at various hematocrit levels in order to determine the optimal hematocrit for oxygen delivery in the presence of stenosis. The geometry is linked through the parameterized SolidWorks model.

The particular model here is solved at a low pressure gradient (~1-2 Torr) for estimation of the change in resistance. At this low flow, laminar flow predominates. For a final solution, the model would be solved at much higher gradient (~80 Torr) which will require handling flow in the transitional turbulent flow regime. To save space, the model includes only one solution at hct=0.2. The model is set up to sweep the hct parameter from 0.2 to 0.6.